Linsanity takes a seat for this season with injury

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, April 1, 2012

It won't be the same around Madison Square Garden without Jeremy Lin. The league won't feel quite the same, either. In a very short time, the man from Palo Alto revitalized a franchise, made cultural history and made everyone feel a little better about hard work and perseverance.

Now that Lin has been lost for six weeks due to surgery on his left knee, it might as well be December for the Knicks. The point guard will be Baron Davis, ticketed to be the starter until a series of injuries delayed his season debut. Amar'e Stoudemire has a serious (back) injury, as well, and there's no guarantee he'll play again this season. If anyone's under more pressure than Davis and Carmelo Anthony, now the unquestioned center of the halfcourt offense, it's interim coach Mike Woodson as he makes radical adjustments on the fly.

Just making the playoffs will be a chore for the Knicks, and if they finish in the seventh or eighth position in the Eastern Conference, they'll almost certainly be eliminated by Chicago or Miami in the first round. For those hoping to see Lin again this season, the most favorable scenario has the Knicks winning the Atlantic Division, drawing a more favorable seed, avoiding the powerhouses and advancing to the second round, when Lin's rehabilitation should be complete.

He says he wants to confound the diagnosis and be back on the court by late this month. Knowing what he's accomplished so far, don't put it past him. But everything changes with the Knicks now, with ominous implications.

-- For the first time since he joined the Phoenix Suns, Steve Nashhas spoken openly about playing elsewhere, telling "The Dan Patrick Show," "I'm not coming back to the Suns if there isn't improvement" and that he would listen if Miami made an offer this summer. The problem is that Phoenix needs help at most every position, and "improvement" wouldn't necessarily make a difference. What's indisputable: Miami needs an upgrade at point guard.

Photo: Jim McIsaac, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

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Injured Jeremy Lin (17) of the New York Knicks looks on from the bench against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, March 26, 2012, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (Jim McIsaac/Newsday/MCT)

Injured Jeremy Lin (17) of the New York Knicks looks on from the bench against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, March 26, 2012, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (Jim McIsaac/Newsday/MCT)

Photo: Jim McIsaac, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Linsanity takes a seat for this season with injury

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-- More wanderlust, of the ridiculous kind: Instead of focusing on the stretch drive and the Dallas Mavericks' title defense, Jason Terrytold Fox Sports Florida that he's "auditioning for 29 other teams" during the final months of his contract, and that "Miami needs a veteran shooter, a guy they can count on. I think I'd be an asset to them." This isn't the first time Terry has made an outlandish remark, so his Dallas teammates are shrugging it off.

-- No, it's not the end of the world, but in the wake of Dwight Howard's decision to stay with Orlando through next season - an apparent show of loyalty - how does it look when he (along with Jameer Nelson) stays on the bench when coach Stan Van Gundy has his players in a huddle? "The least you can do is just get up," said Stan's brother, Jeff Van Gundy, an ESPN analyst. "When did this become acceptable that you aren't a part of it when it's not going well, and you separate yourself like 'this is not my problem'?"

-- Showing up occasionally as the old Lamar Odom, with some life to his game, the ex-Laker hasn't fooled everyone in Dallas. Randy Galloway, the longtime columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, calls Odom "the NBA's most notorious loafer" and "the Lifeless Lump." A bit extreme, perhaps, but the Mavs will be making a big mistake if they depend on a guy pining for Hollywood.

-- Not known for his basketball acumen, Commissioner David Stern has the right idea in supporting the international rule on offensive basket interference. That is, anything goes once the ball has hit the rim. Most of the time, this bogus "goaltending" stems from a player who established position and should be rewarded for the tip-in. "Is the hand over the cylinder or not? Why task the referees with that?" Stern argues. "Just adopt the European rule." That will be up to the competition committee, historically slow to act (see the long-overdue acceptance of zone defenses).

-- And finally, congratulations to Don Nelson and his place in the Hall of Fame. Enough with the petty grudges and resentment of Nelson's often-abrasive personality. Whether you measure his career by numbers or innovation, he is 100 percent deserving.